Ninety-six percent of Americans say that voting is an important duty, though far fewer actually vote. They regard voting as the highest civic sacrament. But what if voting is not a duty, but rather just one of many ways to be a good citizen?

People sometimes say, “What if nobody voted? That would be a disaster. Therefore, everyone should vote.” But this kind of reasoning is easily parodied in way that exposes its flaws: “What if nobody farmed? Then we’d all starve to death. Therefore, everyone should farm.” What matters is that enough people farm, not that literally everyone farms. Perhaps the same goes for voting.